The effort to bring choice to American education hit a milestone yesterday.A group of 35business and political leaders announced in Washington a plan to distribute$172 million inscholarships to enable more than 35,000 children to attend schools of theirchoice. Ratherthan merely wait for public schools to improve, these civic leaders havedecided the time has come to shake up the education system by encouragingcompetitive forces.

The Children's Scholarship Fund (reachable at 800-805-KIDS) is thebrainchild of TedForstmann, the chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace, and John Walton, adirector of Wal-Mart Stores. Three months ago, the two men committed $100million to set up scholarshipprograms in 38 cities. Since then, they have raised an additional $72million fromlike-minded reformers. They have also recruited a stellar and diverseBoard of Directors.

It includes civil-rights leaders such as Martin Luther King III and theRev. Floyd Flake.Former Democratic Cabinet officials Henry Cisneros and Joe Califano havesigned on, ashas Miami Heat coach Pat Riley and Roger Staubach. So too have DemocraticSenatorsDaniel Patrick Moynihan, John Breaux and former Senator Sam Nunn. Businessleaderssuch as Dick DeVos of Amway, James Kimsey of America On line, Peter Lynchof Fidelity, Julian Robertson and Stedman Graham are on board. The boardalso includes such universally respected figures as Barbara Bush and ColinPowell.

Mr. Forstmann says this breadth of support demonstrates "the agreement manypeople havethat we need equal opportunity and a competitive environment in education."The need forcompetition was brought home to him during his involvement with the BigBrother program. He found that while only 30% of students in publicschools went to college, more than 90% of those from parochial schools did.Nor were the two groups of students radically different. Nearly nine outof 10 New York City parochial school students were minorities and more than60% came from single-parent households.

Mr. Forstmann believes public education can be strengthened in much thesame way thatcompetition has improved consumer products. He notes that any system thatcan enforce a90% market share has overly monopolistic characteristics. "We havethousands ofbureaucrats worrying about the harm private monopolies do," he says. "Buthow manypeople worry about the harmful effects that a public school monopoly can have?"

The answer could be found in last week's record attendance at the annualWashingtonmeeting of CEO America, the umbrella group that sponsors scholarshipprograms supported by private donations in more than 40 cities. Organizersclearly feel that the political zeitgeist has shifted toward choice, a movesymbolized by the fact that a National Education Association vice presidentmonitored the conference.

Only a few years ago, school choice was considered a radical conceptembraced bypoliticians at their peril. That's changing, but it's a sign of the timesthat a group of mostlyprivate citizens such as Mr. Forstmann and Mr. Walton have assembled are sofar ahead ofthe curve than either the politicians or the education establishment.